It was about two weeks after Sehun had woken up from the whole incident. I was pushing Woohyun’s expectations too far in thinking he’d let me stay beyond the two extra weeks I had already spent with my mate. I don’t know who you would call that unfair to, but it’d have to be unfair to someone.

I was just developing a feeling of belonging in Sehun’s apartment, and had a great sense of home falling asleep in his arms, even waking up in them every morning. To go back and leave Sehun didn’t feel right. Now, it felt like if I left him I’d be leaving everything about me behind and come back an empty shell. Now, we felt connected with no bounds, and there was no way I was simply going to leave because my brother told me so.

But the longer I stayed, somehow I started feeling this guilt build up inside of me. No matter what, I knew my brother was my brother and he deserved to know what was going on, what I kept from him, that I really had made up my mind about what Sehun had told me earlier.

It honestly surprised me that it had come to this in my mind and thoughts. It should have been different when looking at our past. Woohyun had kept so many things from me and still hasn’t completely told me everything. But I also knew that nothing would be solved if I chose to do the same as he did.

Before I was to have my meeting with Sunggyu and the council member, I wanted my own personal meeting with my brother. That was fair to me and that should have been fair to him as well. Asking for something like that was a lot harder than I had ever imagined.

My brother and I have never sat down and talked, not even when we were younger and were more decent around each other. I really pushed myself to go back to the house. Along next to me was Sehun pushing me to address all of the problems I had with my family, starting with talking to my brother for the first time in…well, about two weeks.

Sehun’s words were convincing enough for me to head back home. Gathering my things wasn’t too hard. At the beginning of the whole thing when Sehun was still unconscious, Myungsoo brought me extra clothes just in case. All I had to pack was that and head home.

I told Sehun I wanted to walk alone to figure out how to talk to my brother, but he completely denied that idea all together. He walked with me, made me talk about what I wanted to talk about with my brother, and how to get across all those points without breaking down like I had predicted I would. He wanted to help me through this, because he didn’t want me going through anything alone anymore. The word “alone” shouldn’t be a part of my dictionary.

Therefore, I had to tell Sehun all of the things I wished to discuss with my brother, from our problems with our parents, to Woohyun’s downright awful attitudes towards me. Let’s just say Sehun and I took our time walking back to my house. We were a few houses away, but Sehun decided to stop us early, turning me to face him.

He pulled me into a gentle, yet firm embrace and kept me in his arms. In my head, I questioned his antics yet my body reacted normally as I wrapped my arms around his waist. I didn’t realize that I was so tense until my whole body melted under his touch. A simple hug from him had such great power.

“You know I love you, right?” He spoke, after a calming moment of me being cradled in his arms.

I did know, but his question caught me somewhat off-guard. “What exactly are you anticipating, Sehun?”

“Just…” He placed his hands on my arms and looked directly at me. “I worry.”

I tiptoed up to his face that I barely reached, and let my lips hover over his for a long second before kissing him. His lips moved against mine as he pressed our bodies closer together. I felt a hand run through my loose hair and one on the small of my back. Yes, we were kissing on the sidewalk, only a few houses down from my own where we were close enough for my brother to sense.

The old In Hye would have cared a lot, but I felt carefree. A kiss from Sehun made me feel like I could conquer a serious talk with my brother. He let go of me, with a much calmer expression on his face. “I’ll see you at home?”

Home? I had to bite my lip to suppress the smile creeping up on my face. He saw right through me and softly chuckled. Giving me one last kiss he gently pushed me to walk back to my house. Sehun was already calling it home, as if it were our home. Just one word gave me the confidence to know right now I’d be doing the right thing. And I couldn’t wait to get back home.

I knew Woohyun was in my mother’s office, and it was even harder now to go inside than it had ever been before. I had the confidence in my self, and having to go in the one room where my parents’ presence would forever linger might break everything I had tried to build up in the past year.

I knocked, putting my brother in front of all those worries. I never heard an answer, so I decided to let myself inside. Immediately, my stomach dropped to the floor; Woohyun changed everything.

The desk, the couch, the colors of the walls, and the “family portrait” was taken down off the wall. All of it must have been changed while I was with Sehun. I just couldn’t believe that Woohyun took out the last of the physical memories of our parents out of the house.

Even for the person he was now, that was leaps and bounds for him. He stood up as if my new arrival was unexpected. He cleared his throat and point to one of the new chairs. “I’m not finished yet.”

I shook my head. “No, it looks great.”

“You should call your mate here, too.” Woohyun spoke with such a sullen expression on his face; it was like he already knew what we were going to be talking about.

I told him I’d call Sehun later and that we needed to hash out things as a family before anything else. We sat across from each other, not knowing which one of us was going to speak first. I would be facing a lot of fears if I talked first; secretly I was hoping Woohyun would take the wheel and begin our little talk.

We at least had someone understanding that there was a lot that needed to be discussed. “There are too many places I could start…” Woohyun began.

To have to explain his and my own past life in the span of one conversation was daunting to him. Out of all the things I would want to ask him it would be what happened with our parents. Why our mom and dad decided to treat me the way they did, hate me, and take me away from my brother who actually loved me back then. This was all overdue. He and I both knew it wasn’t fair to leave it alone.

“Mom and dad…” I could barely get a sentence out of my mouth without mentioning our parents. Woohyun scrunched up his face, as if it were now bad to mention them in this kind of time. Never had I seen Woohyun have this kind of attitudes towards our parents.

“There’s only so much I can say about them.” He vaguely responded.

“Say it, then. Where were they taking me the day they died?” That was really the main question I had to him. There were plenty more that followed, but of all the things my parents did to me I cared most about the reason why they wanted to separate me from my brother. And he knew the answer because I could see the hesitant look in his eyes.

Whatever answer he had wasn’t a good one. He balled his hands up into a fist as he talked, through and through all he was feeling was stressed. “It’s exactly as you think, In Hye. They were going to take you away…from me.”

I hid every emotion that I felt. But…everything hurt. No matter what reason my parents did what they did wouldn’t change. That’s why it hurt so much. My parents were always going to make that choice to try and get rid of their only daughter and die because of it.

My own brother didn’t say anything. He sat there and tried to cope with what he had just said, and I tried to register it. Because my mind always tried to think of a million things at once, all of the possible thoughts ran through me. Woohyun was upset at the fact that our parents decided to take me. Woohyun didn’t like the idea of me leaving him. Woohyun…cared.

He stood up and started walking to the door. “Your mate has come here. I’ll talk with both of you…later.”

Woohyun left not even moments later did Sehun come through the door and shut it behind him. “Hye, what’s wrong? Your emotions are going haywire.”

Instead of telling him what happened, I practically exploded and ran into his arms. I don’t know where the tears were coming from but before I knew it they were flooding my eyes and would not stop. Instead of trying to calm me down, Sehun pulled me into a tight embrace and repeatedly rubbed my back.

All of these emotions pouring out of me were just a sign that I had never let go of anything about how I felt about my parents and the whole situation to begin with. To be completely honest with myself, nothing in my life hurt more than knowing my own parents wanted to get ride of me.

Sehun let me cry and cry until he knew for sure that everything was all let out. He made sure to tell me that was right there beside me the whole time. I could barely breathe with how bad I uncontrollably sobbed away. Calming down wasn’t an option at this point. All I could do was hurt.

Sehun barely made it a block before sensing there was something wrong with me. He ran back instantly feeling my distress. He sat down on the chair I had just been in and pulled me carefully into his lap. My head was tucked under his chin, while his fingers lightly yet soothingly scratched my back.

Eventually I was able to get it out, tell Sehun the whole thing without hiccuping through every single word. He sat patiently and listened to me thoroughly. Sehun understood exactly the emotions I felt. He practically went through the same thing; being thrown out of his home because his parents felt like it was the right choice. The only thing was…neither of us knew how to get over this feeling.

After what felt like an eternity, I cried my eyes out until it wasn’t possible. My breathing steadied, matching Sehun’s. His hands rubbing my back never stopped, even when he knew I was completely calm. He wanted me to know that he was with me; the feeling came across so perfectly clear.  

He made me sit in the chair while he went to go get Woohyun back. At first he didn’t know that Woohyun wanted to talk to him to, until my brother told him to stay. Sehun’s impressions of my brother didn’t change much, especially when I sobbed out my whole heart because of one conversation with him. My hand was held by him through everything, and there was definitely this alpha male tension going on between the two men in the room.

Sehun awkwardly cleared his throat. “So…is there a reason I’m here?”

I wiped my face and tried to focus. Since Sehun was here there must have been something else to be discussed. My whole life was practically being explained before me after all this time. Yet I didn’t know that the sole topic of our conversation was going to be about someone who shouldn’t have mattered to us anyone.

“Sunggyu and I have been discussing your meeting with the council, if either of you two were concerned about that.” Woohyun began.

Sehun stiffened next to me and let out a heavy breath. “Yes.”

Turns out, the meeting wasn’t going to be necessary, which made both Sehun and I incredibly relieved. The reason however, was something I hadn’t considered was even an option. I forgot this kind of problem existed at all. Woohyun pulled out a file with information solely on Sera, where she was from, when she was actually born which made Sehun cringe just a bit, all the while the word written in big red letters at the top that really caught my attention; the main significance of her identity, other than being a vampire.

“A rogue? Sera was a rogue? Are you sure?” My mouth was hanging open. Woohyun had to have been lying to me.

“What’s a rogue?” Sehun asked, a bit phased that we were talking about his ex-girlfriend. He picked up the file out of my hand and flipped through all of the pictures, notes, and letters from council members.

“We all have laws in our world.” I was honestly surprised that Woohyun decided to take over explaining things. To say the least, rogues were complicated, each story was different and had to be reviewed individually, and almost every single story ended with death.

“Those laws keep us in check so that things like werewolves and vampires attacking each other don’t happen. A rogue is someone who breaks off completely from his or her clan or pack. I suppose like a prisoner who has escaped. We knew the rogue was in our area for a number of years, but we didn’t know who.”

Something that Woohyun said was ringing in my ears, standing out more than the fact that Sera was a rogue. “A…number of years…?”

I watched my brother’s shoulders deflate as he continued this explanation. They had known of the rogue in our area since I began high school, the very turning point that began the height all of the problems in my life. For all those years of thinking that Woohyun just plain hated me, it was rather he made the wrong choices in his life to try and protect me.

“I decided to keep you out of it, and it was the worst decision I have ever made in my life. I’m sorry, In Hye.”

My lack of verbal communication was worrying both men in the room. Sehun squeezed my hand to see if I’d react at all, but I didn’t. I tried to, but I just couldn’t say or process anything. Now that I had the information that I wanted, I had absolutely no idea what to do with it.

“Why is she not having the meeting?” Sehun spoke up for me, letting me keep what was left of my emotional composure.

While Woohyun’s eyes were locked on me, he quickly turned to Sehun and spoke to him directly. “Sera killed a man. Not only did she violate the vampire codes, she exposed herself as a rogue. It’s punishable by death. And well…seeing as In Hye took care of that problem—“

“Took care of a problem?” Sehun snapped. Neither of us had talked about the event of me killing Sera other than the one time I had to tell Sehun what happened. Taking care of a problem wasn’t the way we saw it. I was acting purely on instinct to kill the monster that attempted to kill the man I love.

“It took care of a problem that the council asked us to take care of almost ten years ago. So, yes, a problem was taken care of.”

Sehun’s arm was shaking, which made me squeeze his hand harder than he was squeezing mine. An awkward silence filled the room once again, and I couldn’t help but let my mind take over and run every thought through. What was most important to me was that Woohyun’s ways of taking care of me all those years weren’t intentional in the way that I had thought in the past.

He wasn’t doing anything to harm me on purpose, rather try to keep me out of it and keep me in the dark for my own good. I didn’t agree with the method that he chose, but it was better than believing my own brother downright hated me for no reason. He confirmed that it wasn’t true.

I wasn’t happy about the truth of my parents’ ways, but I decided in that moment, I wasn’t going to continue to let it bring me down. I had Sehun, I had developed a few friends, and my relationship with my brother was the least painful it had ever been. I was happy, and I chose to pursue happiness rather than dwell on my past.

That particular discussion came to a close, but it didn’t mean we were done talking about important things. Since we were already on serious topics, I felt like this was a good time to bring up another, serious yet different topic. Sehun said I should ask Woohyun, but I thought asking would make it weird. So I decided to just tell him and make the decision on my own and act like the adult I wanted to be. Even if that meant making a decision that sounded kind of stupid.

“Uh…I have something else to bring up.” I started awkwardly, but I figured there was no easier way of telling my brother.

“…go…on…” Not only was I making it awkward, but now Woohyun did the same thing.

“I’m going to move into Sehun’s apartment.” Sehun let go of my hand immediately, thinking this wasn’t how he expected me to do this. But I had already told him I wanted to live with him; there was just making it known.

I was watching all of Woohyun’s internal reactions. His shoulders were the first to tense up but my brother’s eyes were my main focus. Even when he tried his hardest not to move anything, show any emotions, his eyes showed me fear. He didn’t want me to leave.

I couldn’t possibly imagine why Woohyun would want to hold me back and keep me here. Moving me out of this house was a good thing in my mind. I’d be with Sehun and Woohyun wouldn’t have to constantly tell me what to do. The fear in his eyes turned into a deep sorrow, yet I think he understood where I was coming from.

“There’s nothing I can do to stop you, is there?” He sulked, actually genuinely sad that I brought it up. I shook my head and responded by nodding his head.

“If I can’t stop you, then I guess I won’t.” Woohyun’s shoulder’s sunk down as he folded his arms. I didn’t know whether to feel sorry or not. Woohyun hadn’t expressed these kinds of emotions since our parents’ funeral. Seeing him like this almost made me want to stay, but at the same time I knew it would be good for both of us to have a normal separation such as this. I wasn’t going to be living at home forever.

The whole process happened a lot quicker than I originally expected. Three days was all it took to pack up my things into boxes, a few hours to move them downstairs and into a moving van, and a couple of hours more to bring my things into Sehun’s apartment. Now, I guess it was mine too.

Since Sehun and I didn’t have many belongings of our own anyways, fitting everything into the bedroom wasn’t difficult. All of my clothes were hanging up next to his, or in drawers next to his drawers of his stuff.

He wanted to have the prints I had in my room the same way in his room. We added a pillow to his bed and it felt official once we finished unpacking all of the boxes. It all went so fast my mind didn’t have time to process that I couldn’t say it was just Sehun’s apartment anymore. He gave me the spare key, which was even weirder to me because that little hiding spot was just…special in it’s own way.

“I want to put some of my pictures up on the ceiling.” Sehun said, relaxing on the bed while I put stuff away.

“If I knew the pictures you took, I would tell you my opinion.” That was a little hint I dropped about not knowing at all that Sehun had work he wanted to put up. He had the picture of me as a wolf in the living room, but as far as I knew it, that was the only picture Sehun had ever taken.

He childishly stuck his tongue out and patted the empty spot on the bed. I laid down next to him, resting my head on my pillow so that I could look at Sehun. I didn’t know if my mind had processed Sehun and I living together yet.

Everything was official as far as unpacking went, but it was just so surreal to have it all happening. He kissed my cheek and told me good night, all while pulling me into his arms to make sure I was nice and close to him.

This was it. This was my life now, living in this new home, going to sleep in Sehun’s arms every single night. And time escaped both of us. Our summer was already ending but each new day felt more like a blessing than a curse. I wasn’t dreading the start of school, I was actually looking forward to it, all because of Sehun.

I came to that feeling of looking back on the summer, three of the most significant months of my life and realizing that life changing events just because of a man in my life. The time went by and being together with Sehun felt like the most normal thing to me.

Being out in the public with him and all of his affection took some getting used to. Day by day people started getting used to seeing us as a couple, and slowly forgetting about Sehun’s old, mean ways.

Sehun got a job at the photography store, which earn him money to buy the same camera that I own. It also gave him a chance to learn things from a different perspective than my own, which is probably something he needed.

Sehun and I both agreed that it was the first time we felt like real adults. On our own, gearing up for our last year of college and seeming like life was going to be just all right. The rest of my summer had consisted of hanging out with Sehun, Baekhyun, and Jongin, and slowly letting photography becoming everything about Sehun’s life. That being said, it had become his life, and I had absolutely no idea what the content of his photography was.

I decided not to pester him, thinking he might have just been shy to show me. Secretly, the thought was eating me alive. I told him a long time ago that he needed a muse, something specific to focus on. Considering he had continued with the photography profession, he probably already picked a muse. He was purposefully not telling me, I had convinced myself of this.

I had been home the day he decided to show me. It seemed like a spur of the moment thing, but all along it was part of Sehun’s big plan. He came home after his job, rushed into his office and scurried around the apartment. “In Hye, come here!!”

He called me from the hallway in his little, excited puppy voice.

I shut the TV off and walked myself over to Sehun who seemed far too excited for just an average day. I was standing outside of Sehun’s office, the room that he had been begging me about not entering at all for the past month. Strange to think that this was a place I was calling home and there was a room I wasn’t allowed into.

But now for some reason, Sehun was all giddy for me to see inside the office. “Okay, look. I know that what I said about falling for you this whole time might have been hard to believe but I think I’ve found a perfect way to show that I have.”

“Um…okay?” I couldn’t hide the confusion in my voice. As he covered my eyes with his hands and let me inside I felt even more suspicious. His plans always made me suspicious.

He let go of me and as my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw a plethora of pictures around the room…all of me. “Did you know that you’re really photogenic?”

He walked around the room and started pointing to all of the pictures, recalling back to the times that he took them. A lot of them were from recent dates that we went on, but some I didn’t even remember happening.

There was a picture of me holding my camera when Sehun and I went to the train station. There was another of me when we went on a hike, all you could see was my back as I looked out in the distance. And yet another, the time I fell asleep on his couch, the night he told me I was pretty. Sehun made sure to bring that up again, just in case I forgot.

Me in wolf form when I was howling; me when I was with the baby doe and he captured the smile on my face; me when I was fast asleep in his bed the night we sealed our bond. There were so many pictures from the past, even the times I thought it wasn’t going well between us.

Out of all the pictures, there was one that surprised me the most. I even had to ask Sehun where the picture was from and he smiled proudly that this very picture was my sole focus. I was leaning against a tree, eyes closed with the sun lightly speckled on my face from the tree above.

It was the first time that Sehun and I actually hung out together, when we went to go take pictures of the sunrise. My eyes were not only fixated on how well the picture was taken, but also seeing how different I looked not even a year ago. Tense was a good word to describe this picture, and even though you could tell I was exhausted, a certain amount of stress could be seen on my face.

Going by a timeline on these pictures, each of my facial expressions got just a little bit lighter and a little more…happy. As the time went on, I began to know and fall in love with Sehun, you could easily tell through the prints that I got happier because of him.

He pointed to one of the pictures at the end, one of the many of me when we were at the lake. Sehun captured my side profile and a perfect background of the lake right as the sun was setting. My hair was down, blowing with the wind. I looked so relaxed in the picture; I could have had the easiest life in the world.

“This one is my favorite. Look how beautiful you are.” I didn’t even want to deny that I blushed. His little compliments always filled me up with bubbles of joy.

Sehun didn’t need to prove anything to me because I knew how sincerely he felt for me. My only wish was if only I would have known all of this earlier. It would have saved me a lot of emotional stress from the past.

“Well, all of these are my favorites, but that one especially.” Sehun pulled me into a side hug and kept his arm on my lower waist. “You know how you see the world through your camera? So do I.”

He kissed the tip of my red nose and gave me a huge smile. I saw the world through my camera. Through his, all he saw was me.

Oh my goodness...the author's note might be a teensy bit lengthy since it's been so long!

I was not anticipating it to be this long before the next chapter came out but I'm glad I was able to take some time to work on it because I ended up liking how it worked out in the end. No this is not the end yet don't worry there will be one more chapter after this! 

Soooo it took so long to release this because my life has been pretty crazy! Work is over and I've started my last year of college O_O I'M OLD

As Wolf Princess is wrapping up I will announce that I am working on a new fic with a certain beagle that recently decided that he can just strip whenever he wants to. I'd say that was a pretty big hint ;D You will get to see that one soon I hope!